The 2020 fire season: an eye-opener but not a fluke: Research Brief
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This paper summarizes important outcomes of the 2020 fire year in California and discusses what we can learn from them.
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Policy Reforms for Prescribed Fire Liability Relief and Catastrophe Funds: Research Brief
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This paper argues that the expansion of prescribed fire will require new public policies that both protect burn practitioners from liability and compensate for losses from potential fire escapes.
Read MoreWhat is forest resilience and how do we measure it? Research Brief
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In dry frequent-fire forests of the western US, forest restoration goals are often focused on promoting resilience to disturbances. This brief highlights ways to manage dry western forests for improved resilience.
Read MoreCalifornia wildland fires burning mostly in non-forests: Research Brief
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Wildfires in California burn across a broad diversity of land cover types with different implications for each unique ecosystem. This paper shows that most of California’s recent wildfires burn outside of forests and forest management is just one piece of a very large, very nuanced problem.
Read MoreWinter burning opportunities in the Sierra Nevada: Research Brief
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With narrowing and potentially non-existent opportunities during other times of year, winter may currently be the most realistic and advantageous time to conduct prescribed burns. This study evaluated the effectiveness and feasibility of winter burning to demonstrate its potential utility in mixed conifer forests.
Read MoreManaging fuel profiles in high severity burns: Research Brief
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This study measured wildland fuels (shrubs, downed logs, and fine woody debris) eleven years after high-severity fire converted a Sierra mixed-conifer forest to shrub-dominant vegetation. The findings of this study suggest that site preparation and vegetation control is an effective tool to reduce fuel loads and continuity of live and downed woody fuels in early seral environments created by high-severity fire.
Read MoreRoles of NGOs in wildfire relief and recovery: Research Brief
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Local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play important roles in community wildfire relief and recovery. This paper identifies challenges and opportunities for local NGOs involved in wildfire recovery drawing on three case studies from recent wildfires in Northern California.
Read MoreUsing pyrosilviculture to make forests inclusive of fire at larger scales: Research Brief
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This paper suggests pyrosilviculture, a combination of mechanical treatments and prescribed fire and/or managed wildfire, can be used strategically to modify future wildfires at larger spatial scales.
Read MoreCalifornia’s 1-million-acre goal: tracking our progress: Research Brief
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In this study, the authors integrated archival federal (FACTS) and state (CAL FIRE) forest activity databases dating from 1984 to 2019, analyzed current and historic management trends, and evaluated the archival record’s spatial accuracy against remotely sensed data. California’s progress toward the 1-million-acres of annually treated land is currently at 30%.
Read MorePyrosilviculture: Merging prescribed fire and silviculture: Research Brief
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In this study, pyrosilviculture is presented as a conceptual management framework that merges prescribed fire and silvicultural systems for promoting resilient and sustainably managed forests.
Read MoreHistorical Review and Framework for Managed Fire Decision Making: Research Brief
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A new paper published in September in the journal Fire sheds light into the inherent socio-political complexities surrounding the managed fire decision making process. In the paper, the authors conduct an extensive review of the historical literature that pertains to managed fire decision making, described the range of factors managers consider in their decision, and present a conceptual framework of how decision factors fit together.
Read MoreFitting Solutions to the Problems of California Wildfires Research Brief
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To demonstrate where resources might be better allocated across the state, these authors examined the distribution of area burned and structures lost across five different California vegetation types and how the distribution of fire has changed in these landscapes through time.
Read MoreBet-Hedging Desert Restoration Practices during Drought: Research Brief
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This brief compares the restoration treatments of outplanting and two abiotic treatments on disturbed sites in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern California. Overall results suggest that multiple treatment types, including abiotic treatments, can be implemented as a bet-hedging approach to achieve restoration benefits even if some treatments may fail.
Read MoreField Guide for Estimating Desert Invasive Grass Fuel: Research Brief
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The objective of this study was to assess feasibility of developing regression equations using a fast, non-destructive measure (cover) to estimate aboveground biomass for red brome, a widespread non-native annual grass in the Mojave Desert.
Read MoreWeather Impacts on Fire Thresholds: A Recipe for Big Fire: Research Brief
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In this important concept paper, Pausas and Keeley (2021) outline the mechanistic flow of complex drivers of wildfire for fire prone ecosystems. In brief, with ignitions, fuel continuity, and drought saturation points simultaneously lowered by the right weather, wildfire will be triggered.
Read MoreMixed-conifer forest resilience: from theory to practice: Research Synthesis
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This synthesis summaries a set of papers the explore the relationship between landscape-level forest resilience and disturbance regimes and provides strategies for the effective forest management of Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests
Read MoreBlister rust, beetles, and fire threaten white pines: Research Brief
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In recent decades white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, and fire have increased in extent and caused tree mortality across the western USA. This study used long-term monitoring plots to determine mortality of four white pine species in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
Read MoreFire and climate change: conserving seasonally dry forests is still possible: Research Brief
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A recent paper by Scott Stephens and co-authors asserts that conservation of western forests is still possible, and describes sensible, evidence-based strategies to improve forest ecosystem resilience.
Read MoreHistory of Prescription Burning by Sierra Nevada NPS and USFS: Research Brief
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This paper provides statistical comparisons of wildfires and Rx burning in the three Sierra Nevada NPS parks and six adjacent USFS forests for the period from 1968 through 2017.
Read MoreBurn weather and fuel structure help to determine post-fire tree mortality: Research Brief
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Understanding post-fire tree mortality is important for planning restoration fire treatments that modify fire behavior and effects and models that reflect multiple spatial and temporal scales are effective tools.
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